As the vision for a new Quincy Center takes hold, the road network in the heart of the city is being designed to discourage motorists from treating it as a cut-through.

A dedicated bike lane will be created on Hancock Street to connect the MBTA station to the future Adams Green in front of city hall. The mayor is establishing a bicycle commission, and the firm redeveloping the center is explicitly appealing to young professionals who don’t own cars.

At the same time, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a planning agency that works with suburban communities south of Boston, is measuring roads near Quincy’s main drags to determine where bike lanes could fit, with a goal of connecting Quincy to the Neponset River bike trail.

“Quincy offers great potential for bicycle travel,” said Kristina Johnson, the city’s director of transportation planning. “The demographics are changing. Younger folks have an expectation: They want to be able to walk to transit, they want to be able to ride their bikes. They don’t necessarily want to be burdened with owning a car.”

Count among this group Joe Hern, a lawyer from Wollaston who commutes to his office in Boston every morning from Quincy. He uses Granite Avenue to connect to the Neponset River trail.

“I try to think of ways not to use a car,” Hern said. “I hate to walk, and I just don’t see getting in a car to go 2 miles.”

Last year, Hern and other residents formed a group called Quincycles to promote bicycling in the city and organize group rides, which they plan to hold every Sunday.

Page 2 of 2 - On a Thursday night in March, Quincycles members pedaled through the snow to city hall to meet with officials to discuss how to improve bicycle accommodations such as racks, signs and lane markings.

“I think what’s missing right now is that infrastructure,” said the Rev. Nathan Pipho of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in North Quincy, Quincycles organizer. “Motorists and bicyclists don’t always know how to share roadways. Ultimately, what we hope for in Quincy is that when people are thinking about how to get from their house to another point, they will consider bicycle as a safe and viable option.”

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council is working to help Quincy residents see the possibilities by plotting potential bike routes to Boston.

“The advantage that I think Quincy has are a number of streets that parallel the major roads,” said David Loutzenheiser, a transportation planner for the council. “It’s about creating a route along some of these parallel streets.”

Not everyone in Quincy is embracing bicycles.

Ward 6 City Councilor Brian McNamee said he soured on the accommodations after the state installed bike lanes on the refurbished Neponset River Bridge that he said reduced the room vehicles have to merge onto the traffic-clogged span.

“I think the bicycle enthusiasts have become a very, very effective lobby for getting accommodations in our road networks,” McNamee said. “They’ve gotten bike lanes to be created, and I think that’s often at the expense of the motorist, and also creating a hazardous situation for (bicyclists).”

What’s been done thus far for bicyclists in Quincy and other communities south of Boston is only the beginning, said Eric Bourassa, the planning council’s director of transportation planning.

“The first thing we’re trying in these communities like Quincy is: Where can we put down (bike lane) paint? The very basic stuff,” he said. “We’re very much at an infancy of bicycle planning outside of the core of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville.”